The semantics and grammatical status of - frei

Abstract

This paper re-investigates the semantics and grammatical status of frei in morphologically complex forms such as alkoholfrei ‘non-alcoholic’, bügelfrei ‘no-iron’, and rostfrei ‘stainless, rustproof’. Taking the position that there is no need for an in-between category of semi-affix (Bauer et al. 2013; Olsen 2014), the study demonstrates that the constituent -frei occurs with the same meanings as the free form frei and concludes that it is not necessary to assume the existence of a suffix. The analysis also accounts for complex forms that are argued to necessitate the recognition of a semi-suffix because they contain an instance of -frei that does not exhibit the meaning of its free counterpart, for example, scheinfrei ‘besitzt alle Scheine (has all credits)’.